Chapter 276 - Ass breaker

Throughout the morning they've spend about 3 hours travelling through the blistering cold, stomping on the frozen snow before another light wave of snow fell upon it as the weather shifted just a nudge.

The morning cold indeed proves troublesome, since they have been in considerable enough warmth throughout the night and now when they went out of their comfort, sudden cold temperature hit their face like a fresh wave to wake them and their souls up as well.

The morning cold is even stronger than the one at midnight, yet Rowan insisted to wake up as early as possible. Claiming that it would take a while to reach it, they need time as their advantage unless they want to arrive back in the Kingdom at the next morning.

They have walked fairly over 10 Kilometers so far, which made Chan feel confused and a bit irritated about Rowan insisting to not take any Wagons along. At least now they wouldn't feel so tired but have their behinds seated in the Wagons instead.

Chan tried to keep quiet about it at first since he figured that the Giant ill.u.s.tratio can't be this far, but considering that Rowan didn't warn about the distance before time, even Chan is becoming a bit suspicious about it.

"Why didn't we take the Wagons? My toes are freezing up!" Chan asked his tone arose just a little bit, showing irritation but to point out that he is a bit suspicious, he added. "Why are we this far out of the Kingdom? I was told that the Giant ill.u.s.tratio is very close."

"He is very close." Stated Rowan as he kept stomping down on the snow to get a firm grip one step at a time. "I think our definitions of close and far are different."

Well at least here Rowan started making a bit more sense instead of just avoiding questions. To fight off suspicion without even knowing it himself, he continued to explain some of the Country's attributes. "Here resources are scarce, a lot had to walk 10 hours a day to bring home a meal."

"Exactly my point, the resources are scarce. So why didn't we bring our resources along with us?" Unfortunately, for once Chan is making the most sense here. It had to happen eventually right?

"This is Blue Eagle territory." Rowan finally answered as he pointed his Iron axe towards the sky, following the end of it the group was able to see a group of 5 Blue Eagles. Thankfully they were flying on the opposite direction but it proved Rowan's point. "It would be too dangerous if we brought along meat, they would eventually find us if not right away."

"Neither of you would want to fight a flock of Blue Eagles, I assume?" As he walked further down hill carefully, he stated under a low tone as his arms were spread wide from his torso to at least cushion a fall for a small bit if he slips and falls down. The snow here is almost equal to ice and last thing he needs at this age is to bump his head violently against it.

"Well you saved our assess at this point." Chan finally quit his complaining and decided to trust Rowan more. He has spend decades in this tundra, who would know this place better than him?

A shift in attitude is what Chan needed at this point and the timing worked perfectly, because the next challenge they would have to face is a lot worse than just walking on frozen snow.

Rowan stopped on his spot, turned to the right and pointed towards a mountain of ice with his axe. "We will have to climb up here, after we reach the top we can find the Giant ill.u.s.tratio there."

Everyone looked at this mountain with a lot of dissatisfaction, it looks rather hard to climb up it and the ice just makes it worse. Yes, there is ice on this one instead of frozen snow. Well, snow is also here and there but it is scarce.

"How are we going to climb up there on foot?" Interrupted Dilli this time, if Rowan told before time they could at least have brought tools along. "The only way up there is through flight, and I doubt that that beast would wait for all of us to arrive there. It will chew us alive!"

"You are right there... miss Ignite?" Complimented Rowan her word for once and dropped down his backpack. "We can't walk up there but we can climb."

Afterwards he pulled out a couple of hook like pieces of metal stretching 2 feet long and a foot wide! "This will get a good grip against the ice, try to dig it as deep as possibly at each swing or you will be sliding down all the way down here."

"Well shit, this will be worse than sleeping in the cold." Chan complained as he grabbed one of the hooks and had a better look at it.

"It definetly is worse, but it should only take us a couple of hours to get up there. The elders before me, said that the top is a Kilometer far from here." Afterwards he pulled more and more hooks from his backpack, it seems like he carried a lot so far and didn't even complain.

While Chan complained more than a child even though he didn't carry anything. See, people who would give a shit would be a bit embarrassed about that, but no Chan felt no embarrassment but procrastination instead. Two hours of climbing against the cold ice!

"What do you mean that it is definitely worse?" Asked the Head Guard from the background before grabbing a couple of hooks of which Rowan tossed on the Snow near the backpack.

"Oh, you will mostly be on your belly and your knees will hurt for a month." At least at this part Rowan didn't spare any information to tell for later, at least this will have the entire group a bit more prepared.

To cause a bit of drama in this situation, he added a couple of words which define racism even though he doesn't feel like he is wrong. "As for cold, your tall Demon lady will take care of it after we reach up there. So our knees should be our biggest worry."

"I follow the illas, old man." Dilli a.k.a Bear Claw returned the favour. What else would she do? Stand there and be offended, oh hell no.

"You still blast Fire miss." Rowan continued with his offensive comments, the illas influences have been deep up here especially since there only are ill.u.s.tratios at Frozen Toe Kingdom.

"Let's not toy with words here, Bear Claw is our ally and I expect you to respect her Rowan. She doesn't like Ignites more than you do!" Jumped in Chan, protecting Dilli once more. But not from a Wild Boar this time thankfully, just a racist.

"Alright then, my apologies miss." Was Rowan brave enough to apologise, or it could be that he just wants to move towards a different point before they start this part of their journey.

"If we are over half an hour high up there and one of you happens to slip down here, don't bother climbing up again." Although he projected it a bit harsh, its a melody in the ears of some here.

I mean why wouldn't it be? They won't have to climb all the way up there for over 2 hours and they won't have to fight the Giant ill.u.s.tratio. No one is dumb enough to risk their own damn neck for gold!

But Chan of course had to stall them a bit more with a question he was itching to answer. "Why so?"

"Because the Giant ill.u.s.tratio won't wait for us to prepare our arsenal." Direct enough, Rowan closed down any more questions with his answer.

Or at least he hoped so, but no. Chan again asked, "Why would you face a beast for strangers?"

"Let's just say it is a personal achievement." Rowan answered as he put his backpack on and prepared to climb this mountain of ice.

As they took a better glance at it, the view in front of them can actually be considered two mountains. They are close to each other but in the middle it literally looks like a naturally formed kilometer long slide.

The middle of these two mountains spreads over 10 meters wide and its surface is smooth enough to slide down without facing a bruise. Waving his hooks, he pointed one to the left and recommended. "Half climb that way and the rest follow me, we can't break the slide unless you want to break your ass on the way down."

The mountain has an angle of 40°, I suppose it is better than climbing up vertically and it shows strong chances of survival if one is clumsy enough to mess up a good grip, but it is still torturing especially since they don't have the appropriate boots for this task.

"Let's go."